When you notice that I am posting even more frequently in November (hopefully). You’ll see that you, too, can join in. I will be participating in Nano Poblano, “the World’s Least Official Blog-Everyday-November Challenge.” Nothing gets me motivated like something that isn’t officially official-official, and really has the spirit of community, teamdom, and freedom. We all want to have fun. Here’s the official link. Especially if you are already a regular every day blogger, and want to reach more people, and participate more as well – go sign up!

Nothing says “potential over-commitment” like Jupiter conjunct Sun in Scorpio – so I thought it’d be a great time (or worst time) to take a deep dive. You get it, folks, I decided to go for the swim! Isn’t it exciting!? That said, considering my away-from-the-blog work/life/family balance, it should be an equally busy season off-blog. My throat already feels scratchy and my lymph nodes feel swollen, so why don’t we do it?! I’m gonna enjoy this, or at least enjoy trying! Oh, and the self-care… that’ll happen. 🙂

Blogging, for me, brings together my favorite things art, celebration, exploration, empowerment, and meditation, and growing together. I need the calm to balance the excitement. I need the bland to balance the spicy. I need the deep-discussions to balance the light-hearted whimsy. I need my own commitment to my writing/art/astro/photography space getting out there, and I need it to be okay when I don’t make it out the gate, or I just hide under the blankets.

This is my home beyond me. This is where I live, and I intend to keep decorating, or louse it up, whatever is my choice. If you stick around for my posts, I thank you all in advance for supporting me and my self-expression, as it ebbs and flows, changes and grows.

This image above is a photograph I’ve taken from an image in the book: Astrology, Magic, and Alchemy. The painting is called The Planet Saturn. It’s a miniature from De Sphaera, 15th century. Modena, Biblioteca Estense.

In the image can be seen the dual rulership of Saturn, the waterbearer image (Aquarius) and the goat 🐐 (Capricorn). In the image, Saturn seems to be represented as a man, carrying a sickle and also a cane, as if to indicate old age.

Perhaps as depicted in the image, the power over death, and that for a long life, is in our own hands – if only we are to realize it. Yet most of us gaze outwardly with fear, understandably. Often the power seems beyond us. This begs the question for a more nuanced stance, and a depth of inquiry that rarely ceases.

Since Jupiter has moved into the sign of Scorpio, many of us are wondering what it means – what it means for us individually. The image above is from a painting called Jupiter. It is a detail. It is by Jacopo Zucchi; Rome, Palazzo Rucellai, vault of Galleria.

In the image above we have Jupiter’s dual rulership represented, Sagittarius on the bottom left, and Pisces on the bottom right.

Are our heart’s asking for justice? How can we be more judiciously loving with ourselves?

Is there a being whose highest authority we can appeal to, who will listen to our woes, our trials and tribulations? A being more intimate than the one we all are connected to in our hearts? What about the peace within our own hearts?

This New Moon in Libra is juicy and new – and it has a lot of energy to contribute to our relationships. Take a moment and be present with who you are today, and in loving, full acceptance, say: “yay!” I am so grateful to share this space with all of you!

Sometimes I get lonely, and I just realized it’s because it’s a natural response for me to disconnect from the “pain body” of the world. During tragedy, such as the recent event in Las Vegas, it’s a natural response for me that I acquired over time, to remove my shared energy field from that of the world. It’s self-protective, and it often works, but then the walls come down and I remember: here’s where I want to be, and maybe where I often, too, am; when I am more aware of it. This is from Thich Nhat Hanh’s Peace is Every Step.

Cookie of Childhood

“When I was four years old, my mother used to bring me a cookie every time she came home from the market. I always went to the front yard and took my time eating it, sometimes half an hour or forty-five minutes for one cookie. I would take a small bite and look up at the sky. Then I would touch the dog with my feet and take another small bite. I just enjoyed being there, with the sky, the earth, the bamboo thickets, the cat, the dog, the flowers. I was able to do that because I did not have much to worry about. I did not think of the future, I did not regret the past. I was entirely in the present moment, with my cookie, the dog, the bamboo thickets, the cat, and everything.”

This morning I found a list of quotes/aphorisms that I once thought were important; as I sip my tea, I’m appreciating the fact that I have been consistent in things.

1). don’t throw out the baby with the bath water 🙂

My original journal entry had 123 quotes/aphorisms, but I am relaying the ones that I starred then. I am wondering to myself, would I elevate the same ones in importance or choose others at this time?

Next I’ll list the ones that I put a star next to, way back when. Unfortunately, I do not know who all of them are attributed to, so i welcome your help in the comments section, if you are inclined to do things like this, in this way.

-> “truth comes out of error more easily than out of confusion”

-> “neurotics build castles in the air, psychotics live in them”

-> “necessity has been with great truth called the mother of invention. some of the noblest exertions of the human mind have been set in motion by the necessity of satisfying the wants of the body. T. Robert Malthus, 1798

-> “i may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend, to the death, your right to say it.” Voltaire (1694-1778)

-> “you cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” Mark Twain

-> “i would rather be able to appreciate the things i cannot have than to have things I am not able to appreciate. Elbert Hubbard

-> “access to power must be confined to those who are not in love with it.” – Plato

-> “do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. So aim above morality. be not simply good; be good for something.” – Henry David Thoreau

-> “memory is the greatest of artists, and effaces from your mind what is unnecessary”

-> “half the work that is done in the world is to make things appear what they are not. – E.R. Beadle

-> “the course of true anything does not run smooth” – Samuel Butler

-> “most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” – Dale Carnegie

-> “never apologize for showing feeling, when you do so, you apologize for the truth.” -Benajmin Disraeli

-> “he who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare, and he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

-> “the education of the will is the object of our existence” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

-> “time will explain it all. he is a talker, and needs no questioning before he speaks” – Euripides

-> “brevis esse laboro, obsurus fio.” (When I labor to be brief, I become obscure.) Horace from Ars Poetica.